Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

SLASH.

With one last swing of her sword, Rumi ended the last demon’s life. Her pastel-colored markings pulsed lightly as she shallowly breathed. Even a year after she and HUNTRIX, Mira and Zoey (the very unhinged trio of demon hunters), sealed the Rainbow Honmoon, there were occasional tears in the seal. Although as time goes by, they tend to become rarer and rarer. That leaves the girls to focus on more pressing matters, like dealing with the Saja Boys. Not in a negative way, however. The boys had the fortune of being on the right side of the Honmoon when it was created and Gwi-Ma was defeated. Now, all 5 of the boys are free. So what is the logical thing to do when 5 demons, who were in an evil boyband and tried to throw the majority of Seoul into a giant bonfire, AKA their demon king?

You ask them to join forces and become demon hunters, of course.

Behind Rumi was the shyest and quietest member of the Saja Boys, Mystery. His breathing was heavier than Rumi’s, most likely because he wasn’t used to this type of “work.” Being idols was hard enough, especially after being puppets for Gwi-Ma, but being idols AND demon hunters? Even harder.

Rumi choked out a half laugh, half wheeze as she shuffled over to Mystery, who was sitting on the sidewalk, hunched over and breathing rapidly. Rumi took a seat next to him, blade settling beside her on the concrete as she proceeded to fix her braid.

“You good?” Rumi asked Mystery. The mysterious demon didn’t answer verbally, but he nodded as his chest heaved fast. Rumi nodded in return. “It’s hard work, right?”

“Y-Yeah,” Mystery managed to reply as he set his two Mudang fans (his demon hunting weapons) in front of him and tucking his knees to his chest. His rolled up sleeves fell, covering up his light demon patterns, like the ones Rumi has.

“You and the boys really didn’t need to do this-“ Rumi started as she began fixing her braid. “-You didn’t need to join us as hunters. I know it’s hard. I’ve been doing this since I was a teen, and I’m still not completely used to it.”

“N-No, it’s fine,” Mystery moved his legs straight out as he stretched his arms in front of him. “It was either join you or h…”

“…Hide?”

“…Yeah, and I don’t like hiding.” His hands fell into his lap, his hair-covered gaze following them.

“I get that. I don’t like hiding either.”

“Yeah, I heard…”

Rumi raised an eyebrow and turned to Mystery. “From who?”

“Golden.”

“Oh, yeah, pfft-“ Rumi chuckled. “I almost forgot about that… you listened to it?”

“...yeah, before we debuted. I really like it.” 

Rumi softly smiled. “Thank you,” She replied, looking up at the night sky that was peppered with millions of sparkling stars. 

Rumi mindlessly braided her hair as she stared at the vast, sparkling void that was the night sky. HUNTRIX rarely hunted during the day, and despite her horrific sleeping schedule due to their night prowling, Rumi found the night oddly calming. The tranquil night contrasted with the chaos that was demon hunting, but it made Rumi feel balanced… She felt confident and collected while hunting at night.

“Can…” Mystery broke the silence as Rumi finished her braid. “...Can I, um, tell you something? I-I don’t know if it’ll sound weird.” Mystery looked the opposite way from Rumi.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“You… You sort of remind me of my sister…”

Rumi blinked. “You… you have a sister?”

“…Had a sister. 200 years ago. I had a lot of siblings, actually, but I didn’t care about them.” His fingers started to fidget with his sleeves. “And they certainly didn’t care about me.”

“How many siblings did you have?”

“Probably 6, I don’t know. They were all older than me. They were all my half siblings. My father and step mom liked them more than me, and they didn’t even care about me.” He paused, his breathing wavering. “But my sister did… and you kinda remind me of her.”

The HUNTRIX leader didn’t know how to respond. She stared at Mystery. She was frustrated she couldn’t read his face with his eyes covered. Despite that, though, just by how his voice and breathing shaked, she could tell he was upset. “What was her name?”

“…Min-Jung. She was 2 years older than me I think, and the only one who accepted me.”

“Aw, I’m so sorry.” Rumi placed a hand on Mystery’s shoulder. “She sounds like a very kind person.”

Mystery chuckled, but it had a tang of sadness.  “She was. I get why people ignored me though… after all, my mom was a demon, so I get it.” 

Both hunters went silent- Mystery stopped fidgeting and blankly stared ahead, while Rumi’s gaze slowly left Mystery, and she looked ahead as well, her hand slipping off of his shoulder.

The silence was heavy, but not uncomfortable. Rumi had assumed all of the Saja Boys were regular humans in their past lives. But here sat another half-human, half-demon. Just like her, and he was hated for the same thing she was told to keep a secret. Rumi was fortunate to still be loved by the people around her, regardless of her heritage. Mystery didn’t have that- she doesn’t even know if Mystery told the Saja Boys about this. 

“Your family… they sound like heartless pieces of shit.”

Mystery flinched before turning to Rumi. His mouth was slightly agape, but no sounds came out. The HUNTRIX leader paused, then continued.

“…I-I’m sure you can already tell, but I’m half demon as well; my mom was a hunter and my dad was a demon. Our song, Golden, was a vent for me. I just wanted to be myself, but… someone told me not to-” Rumi tucked her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. “-Not out of malice, but fear of what others would think. I don’t think hiding yourself or telling others to hide is right.” Rumi turned back to Mystery. “Everyone deserves love, no matter who they are.”

Mystery closed his mouth and looked back down. Rumi leaned forward, trying to get a glimpse of his expression. 

After a minute of silence, Mystery sniffed. The Rumi could see his hands start to shake, and a tear rolled down his cheek. He quickly began wiping tears from his eyes. He wasn’t audibly crying, but his breathing was shaky again. He covered his eyes with his sleeves, but Rumi could see a soft smile on his face. She moved close and put a hand on his back.

“D-Did I say something wrong?” Rumi quickly asked, concerned. Mystery shook his head and sniffed again. 

“N-No… you just…” He paused and wiped his eyes, fixing his bangs back over his eyes. “…You really are like my sister.”

Rumi paused. She felt her eyes start to water, but she didn’t let the tears fall. She smiled at Mystery as she wrapped her arms around him, and he reciprocated the hug. Another tear fell down Mystery’s cheek, then another. Eventually… he was sobbing softly again, and Rumi let him. 

(I suck at writing angst with a good flow that doesn’t feel rushed/forced, so lmk if this was good 😭)

Chapter Text

(This takes place weeks before first oneshot-)

A hiatus from HUNTRIX was expected after their most recent performance, which ended with the trio suspiciously floating in the air with no visible cables holding them up. What’s more suspicious were the 5 Saja Boys passed out on stage. But most people chalked it up to just being “part of the act.” 

Well, it wasn’t, but HUNTRIX wasn’t about to tell the public the truth, on behalf of the boys. The same boys that are now living in the HUNTRIX skyscraper. Rumi, out of the kindness of her heart (and out of pity) decided to let the Saja Boys live in the HUNTRIX tower, and they even turned an entire floor (a spare one that no one had an explanation for why it existed, but let’s chalk it up to plot convenience) into a living quarters for the boys. It was spontaneous and out of the blue, especially for the employees who worked for HUNTRIX. They thought the girls “had a thing” for the boys, or that the Saja Boys got evicted out of their last place. Thankfully, the HUNTRIX girls had a way of diverting attention away from having to answer any questions about that.

So, what are the girls doing now?

“Romance,” Mira growled. “Get the hell up or I’m throwing you out the window.”

They were dealing with the boys reeling from their recent performance, of course. Being a demon apparently came with perks, and one of those was shapeshifting. Rumi hasn’t done it, but apparently the boys did. In addition to looking different, their hair changed color. 

But with their defeat and break away from Gwi-Ma, all of their powers were gone (except for Mystery, but he’s… special). And now we have Romance, face down on the HUNTRIX couch, having the “worst” day of his life because instead of his beautiful pink hair, he was now a brunette.

“Shut up, Mira, and let me wallow in peace!” Romance’s cries were muffled by the pillow his face was stuffed into. Today was supposed to be normal- just a relaxation day. But after everyone went to sleep and woke up, shit hit the fan. The girls didn’t even get changed out of their PJs since they JUST woke up 5 minutes ago. It was early in the morning too- the sun was just rising!

Mira, who was standing besides Rumi and Zoey, who all stood over this very pathetic looking man, slowly turned to them.

“I know we’re not supposed to hurt them, but PLEASE let me kill this one.”

“Mira, no!” Zoey retorted quickly. “We can’t! We just rescued them, and now you want to send them back to hell!?”

“It’s better than having this drama queen bawl his eyes out because his hair is ‘ruined!’”

“No, it’s not!” Zoey took a step forward and leaned down above Romance. “Romance, it’s okay! I can buy some hair dye and help you dye it, if you’d like!”

“It’s not the same!” Romance sobbed into the pillow.

“It literally is!” Mira raised her voice, clearly losing her patience. Baby stood in the background in his iconic oversized pink sweater, chugging hot sauce straight out of the bottle. His hair was brown as well, though a bit lighter than Romance’s. He seemed to not care in the slightest.

“It isn’t! I could damage my hair if you get the wrong dye!!” Romance sat up, face red and genuine tears on his face. Baby rolled his eyes, Mira growled and Zoey stepped back. Rumi’s eye twitched; she looked like she wanted to check out of life at that moment. Of course, out of the kindness of her heart, she did her best to put on a good face. She wanted to make this whole situation with the boys work. She didn’t give up on Jinu, so she couldn’t give up on the others… but saying this wasn’t getting on her nerves would be a big, fat lie.

“Dude, I’ve been dying my hair since I was 18 and it’s still fine.” Mira responded with venom in her tone. It’s clear she was fed up with Romance.

“Hey, how about we discuss this later?” Zoey interrupted, turning to Romance. “Romance, we can dye your hair eventually. And I promise, I’ll find the safest dye I can!” She turned to Mira. “And you, ma’am, need to calm down! Emotions are high, and we all just fought a giant fire demon! Let Romance be a little dramatic!”

“Why does he get to be dramatic!? He was the one working for Gwi-Ma, he doesn’t deserve-“

“How about we all just shut up!?” Rumi finally snapped, and all eyes were on her. Her patterns began to slowly turn into a dark magenta and her left eye turned golden with a slit pupil. “Can you all please shut up!? You-” She pointed to Romance. “Need to quit whining! You-” She pointed to Mira. “Need to quit listening to him whine! And you-” 

She paused when she pointed at Zoey, whose eyes were wide with confusion. Rumi froze, before slowly lifting her marked hand and placing it on Zoey’s head. “You did absolutely nothing wrong, keep being yourself.” Zoey smiled ear to ear as Rumi lifted her hand. “BUT THE REST OF YOU-” She snapped at everyone else who was in her vicinity. “NEED TO GET YOUR LIVES TOGETHER!”

The door to the dorms clicked closed, and all heads turned. Abby stood in front of the door, completely puzzled. His hair was jet black, like Jinu’s, but significantly more messy. He slowly lifted a muscly arm that was holding a plastic bag.

“...I bought hair dye for myself. Are you okay, Rumi?” 

All eyes turned to Rumi again. Her hair was a mess, one of her eyes was completely golden and her patterns infested her skin as a dark purplish-pink color. With wide, terrifying eyes, she slowly shook her head and clenched her clawed hands. Abby nodded once and slowly turned to leave.

As he did, Rumi let out a long, exhausted sigh as her demon features slowly faded. Mira put a hand on her shoulder.

“Sorry, Ru. Didn’t mean to get you all… feisty.”

Rumi smiled. “It’s fine… I think I just need some time to adjust to this. So far, Jinu and Abby are the only 2 who haven’t made me lose my shit.”

“Hey, what about me!?” Baby asked, stomping over to where the others were. Romance went back to sobbing into a pillow and Zoey stood uncomfortably, not really knowing what to do. For a girl who has a million ideas to solve problems, she was at a loss right now.

“You…” Rumi examined his upset baby face. “…you’re just there.”

“…what the hell does that mean, Tinky Winky?”

“Watch it, Sun Baby,” Mira spat back. Baby rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“I haven’t had enough energy to evaluate who I am and am not upset with, so consider yourself in the middle.” Rumi replied. “I think I need a minute. Zoey, you’re in charge.”

“WHY ME!?” Zoey panicked as Rumi began shuffling towards her bedroom. 

“You’re the most level headed,” Rumi called back, shutting her door as soon as she entered. She was as still as a statue for a moment. She then leaned back on her door and sighed as she heard chaos erupting outside. When Rumi became a demon hunter, she honestly never expected this to be where it leads her. 

The whole situation with the Saja Boys was… strange. Some of them are acting completely different than how they were when Gwi-Ma was alive. Romance was very forward and flirty. Now he’s a drama queen who cries at the smallest inconvenience. Abby was all smug and prideful, flexing his muscles at every fan event. Now, he’s super polite and humble. Mystery is… mostly the same. Quiet, edgy… mysterious. Baby’s still nonchalant and twice as annoying, and Jinu is still funny and awkward, yet so charming and understanding. Albeit, he’s been more quiet and closed off as of recently. Rumi doesn’t blame him- he and the boys are having to process that they’re alive and free, and everyone (including HUNTRIX) is going to have to get used to the chaos.